Brocelyn Hogarth Brant
Brocelyn Hogarth Brant, known by his nickname of “Broadway”, was a famous and well-loved stage actor from Earth-20181, who became the sixth host of Edward Tamaron. Using Brant's body, Tamaron became President of the United States for the first of at least two times in his existence, running against Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, with The Leper as his running mate. In this form he killed the latest host of the Vital Spirit, who was also the final host of Snaps McGee of the Boston Group. His long years of bodiless existence had deprived him of much of his sanity, and in trying to open a gateway to return to his homeworld of Earth-Alpha, he unleashed a zombie plague on Boston, which exposed him as a dark magician. He maintained his office, and his safety, by unleashing the Hounds of the Moon. During this time, he discovered that a madwoman named Dahlia was carrying a fetal Devil Carny, a long prophesied creature considered to be the perfect magical lifeform. He attempted to transfer himself into the child, but the mystical backlash destroyed his physical form, leaving him bodiless once again, until he took over the body of a Bostonian named Hippolyte Jason. Biography On Broadway Before he became a host for Edward Tamaron, Brocelyn “Broadway” Brant was a highly successful stage actor, having started a career in his childhood. He was actually an illegitimate grandson of Charles Titan, from an encounter Titan had had before he was possessed by Tamaron. It is believed that when he was around ten (roughly around 1935), Brant had sent a letter to President Gregory O'Grady asking for advice, and O'Grady suggested, rather arbitrarily (having not cared too much for children) that he become an actor. In the 1950s, he played Snaps McGee in a musical comedy about the rise of the McGee Hunting Company, and his performance onstage as the Virginia Slasher was so well done that people accused him of being the Slasher himself; not unlike how Richard Mansfield was suspected of being Jack the Ripper for his performance as Mister Hyde seventy years prior. The accusations caused Brant to briefly consider supporting the Launch Kentucky into Space Movement, which was building during this time, but he considered it to be rather rash politically. In the '60s, Brant's theatrical success continued. He became an incredibly rich man, and having been considered a “nice guy” all his life, he often threw generous parties at his house, which was in fact McGee Manor, and, having been auctioned off after the death of Michael Owen years earlier, Brant had bought in homage to his old character. During this time, many of his guests were younger people, and they brought with them the new drugs of the counter-culture. Thus was born a new chapter in Brant's life. By the early '70s, he was hopelessly addicted to heroin, and his career bombed. His agents insisted on paying for McGee Manor so that he could continue to have the large living space, which they believed would help him recover. In reality, it only encouraged a decadent lifestyle that worsened his condition. By 1972, Brant was believed to be dying. Somehow, his brainwaves reached out through space and into Hell, where Edward Tamaron had been trapped for thirty years. Possession In the depths of the Hell dimension, Tamaron had almost completely lost his mind. He had been unable to escape for years due to the constantly increasing insanity that warped his memories. During his time in Hell, he had visions of the past, seeing old enemies like his father and Yulmer Purrlzig appear before him, but also apparent visions of beings from his future. He tried to align these thoughts but was unable to. On an unconscious level, however, the forces that had allowed Tamaron to survive for the past several centuries were still alive; he was attempting to draw magical energy from the dimension into his astral form, and in doing so eventually became strong enough to sense certain emotions from Earth—including Brant's suffering. Using this as fuel for an impromptu ritual, Tamaron was able to escape Hell at last. Reappearing besides Brant, Tamaron went into a frenzy and instantly consumed the man's soul, taking over his body and effectively killing him. At long last, Tamaron had returned to the world of the living. However, this would not be the end of his woes. He was horrified to discover that Brant was a heroin addict. He tried to resist the drug, remembering his struggle with an addiction to sun-piece years before, but gave in and indulged the substance for three long years. During this time the drug only served to further splinter his sanity. By 1975, however, McGee Manor was no longer being paid for by Brant's agents, who had abandoned him. Forced out onto the streets, Tamaron found himself having to break his habit cold turkey, which eroded his mind to the breaking point. He would wander the streets of Boston for another three years, unaware of whether or not he was alive or dead, or still trapped in Hell. But at long last, his mind began to return to him, and with it, his ambitions. He managed to gain enough from begging to gain an apartment, and he began to use that as a base from which he began to cast a number of spells that created coincidences to make him wealthy. With his wealth, he regained his strength, both physically and mentally, and began to do research on how the world had changed in his nearly fifty years of incapacitation. He eventually learned that the Boston Group either vanished or died. Only a handful remained; Clayton Stone, he discovered, may or may not have had a grandson, also a reporter, named Clayton Stone III. Welshie and Thomas J. Carlson were believed to still be alive—Worthington Butcher graffiti could still be found around the world, near some of the Butcher's victims, and Carlson had become a vampire. The others were believed to be dead; however, a man named “Sasquatch-Bones” Wilson, the current President of the McGee Corporation, stuck out to Tamaron. Many of his mannerisms were extraordinarily similar to Snaps McGee, and he had a mystical aura around him. Studying the aura, Tamaron discovered it was linked to the Book of Akinos, which McGee had stolen from the Black Ship in 1922. He believed that McGee, upon his death in that same year, had used the spells from the book—which included the same body-swapping techniques Tamaron used—to transfer himself into Michael Owen, his ward. When Owen died, he transferred into “Sasquatch-Bones”. When probing McGee/Wilson, Tamaron also discovered that not only did McGee survived until the present day, but he carried with him the Vital Spirit, an entity summoned or created by Yulmer Purrlzig long ago, which had inhabited Tamaron's old foe, Hjalmar Mandrake. Tamaron had reason to believe that the Vital Spirit had manifested in Zay Arkmoor and the Prince of Space as well. Tamaron now had two plans in mind. He had to achieve a position of great power so that he could acquire the resources needed to return to his homeworld of Earth-Alpha, something that he had wanted to do since he arrived on Earth-20181 more than a century prior. But before he could do that, he would need to sate his thirst for the deaths of the surviving Boston Group members, and their descendants. Even in the face of his great changes in time, mind, and body, he still wanted to overcompensate for the failures he had faces in his previous two hosts. Rise to Power The ultimate issue that Tamaron regarded was that of how to acquire power. As Karl Gerber, he had manipulated Adolf Hitler into giving him what he needed. Now he had no such dictator, even in the forms of the more disreputable Presidents. It was when he was pondering the Presidents that he remembered how drastically the timeline had been shifted—Gregory O'Grady had been President, rather than Franklin Roosevelt. Perhaps he could ascend to the Presidency—in that position, he could theoretically acquire whatever he would need to return to Earth-Alpha. He did not entirely know the process of traveling between Earths—this secret having died with his former Master, Cyrus Sincodemius—but he could figure it out, given an unlimited supply of money, as well as a veritable army of federally-backed scientists. In 1982, he began to campaign—at least, unofficially. Making friends with Ronald Reagan and members of his staff—having both been formers actors interested in politics—he began to gain favor amongst important Congressmen and lobbyists. Though he would not run for President for another decade, these decisive friendships became hugely important; not only did they educate him about the ways of politics, but they also helped him gain allies who could help him “cheat” a little in the election in which he planned to run. It was during this time that Tamaron did more research on the fame of Brant, and discovered that he was in fact the illegitimate grandson of Earth-20181's Edward Tamaron, whom he had once possessed as “Charles Titan”. When faced with questions during his growing prominence concerning his negative ancestry, Tamaron was quick to point out that Brant wanted to “rise above the failings of the past”, a statement which was, in fact, true. Ultimately, Brant decided to run as an Independent, knowing that if he had the votes of only one side of the American political spectrum, he might not be able to defeat his opponents—whom he guessed from Earth-Alpha's history would be George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. By claiming that he would be a perfectly central candidate, he gained the support of both Democrats and Republicans alike. The status of Brant's acting career also gave him a tremendous boost, and there were several retreads done of Brant's old plays (though admittedly with younger actors). By 1991, Brant was ready to run for the Presidency. It is worthy of note, however, that by this time, as Tamaron, he had begun to pick up several followers in regards to his magical talents. One of them was The Leper, a brain-damaged and deformed man who was nonetheless charismatic due to an immensely strong magical field, possibly brought up due to a mutation. The Leper, pitied and respected by the American people, would serve as Brant's seemingly misplaced running mate; yet, as a shadow of Brant's true self, as well as an indication of his own charisma being able to “sell” such a strange man as a genuine politician, he was more appropriate than anything. Brant and The Leper became sort of the “odd men out” of D.C., but that only served to give them more votes. It was in 1990 that “Sasquatch-Bones” Wilson seemingly passed away. Tamaron remained skeptical of this being the true end of Snaps McGee, and thus continued to search for what would be McGee's fourth host. He did not have to look far, as a man named “Peanuts” Parker suddenly and randomly became the head of the McGee Corporation. Tamaron's obsession with Snaps McGee—which now became bloated in the wake of learning that he was probably the host of the Vital Spirit—led him to also attempt to find the Book of Akinos, which had been in Sincodemius' collection, but which he had never read. He managed to find out that the Book had been sold at an auction years ago. In what would be his first closet assassination in his political career, he had the owner killed, and the Book brought to him. He began to study Akinos, for whom the Book was named, and once more began to tread down the dark path of contacting deities. The Presidency Tamaron quickly sensed, both through magic and through his own intuition, that he would essentially win the White House in a landslide. As his popularity increased, he discovered that he could tap into the energies of the collective unconscious generated by Brant's name being all over the news; this increased level of power briefly disoriented him, but he began to use it to push himself to an 80% vote guarantee. He diverted some of the power towards finding the surviving members of the Boston Group. It was here that he sensed that somewhere, Ashley Jean-Claude was still alive, as well as Clayton Stone. However, following exposure to the magics of Ythogtha, Stone's skull had been cast into the barrier between universes, causing it to be changed somehow. The skull had formed a sort of “spirit-body”, and had plagued Tamaron in his first life as the Cyan Skull, a crazed superhero and member of the super-team Glory, which Tamaron fought in the 1960s. The Skull was, for now, beyond Tamaron's reach—as was Jean-Claude, somehow. Tamaron never properly learned of Jean-Claude's fate. He learned as well that Thomas J. Carlson had cloaked himself using magic, while Welshie was also similarly undetectable, possibly due to another spell (though the actual method does still remain a mystery). “Peanuts” Parker/Snaps McGee, as well as Clayton Stone III, however, were easily found. After a press conference wherein he showed up, Brant ordered The Leper to strangle Stone to death, and also sent some of his followers to capture Parker. Because Parker hosted the Vital Spirit, Brant wanted to eliminate him personally. He tortured him with an inch of his life, until he finally confessed that he was Snaps McGee. Brant then killed him, and engaged McGee in an astral duel. Being on his home turf, Tamaron easily destroyed McGee's soul, passing the Vital Spirit onto a new host and slaying one of the Boston Group's founders once and for all. Tamaron was almost willing to embrace ecstasy for his apparent conquest of the Boston Group, but his desire for total victory did not allow him to move past the survival of both Carlson and Welshie, as well as the Cyan Skull. It would turn out that his frustrations were justified, as the two would play a part in undermining his plans once more. Brocelyn Brant did end up winning the Presidency. Within weeks of his swearing in, he began to order certain scientific organizations to investigate Multiverse theory, while acquiring the supplies needed to work massive magical rituals in the tunnels below the White House. The Birth of Opposition Tamaron decided to try to bargain with certain deities to see if he could raise a gateway to Earth-Alpha without having to build anything himself. This would not be the last time he would resort to such a plan. His first resort was to Akinos; he had long since abandoned Ska (who had slain him, and may have been destroyed by The Predator), Cyaegha (who required too many human sacrifices to realistically call forth), and Ythogtha (who had also killed him, and had been destroyed by the Boston Group). By doing research on Akinos, he also learned of one of Akinos' kin, a Snake God called Gekkos. He decided to compile research on Gekkos as well, to possibly use as a backup plan in the event of a failure involving Akinos. This information would prove to be important in Tamaron's next form. It took several months into Tamaron's Presidency before he was able to summon Akinos. However, it was here that Tamaron began to lose the patience he had so accumulated during his time as Charles Titan. He decided to cut corners on the ritual, and ended up performing it in a botched fashion. He was surprised when he found that Akinos did not appear; in reality, the god did ''appear, but not at the point of the ritual. Akinos manifested instead in the ruins of the Miskatonic Asylum for the Criminally Insane, where two of its former patients, a man named Jon and a woman named Dahlia, were re-exploring. Akinos knocked Jon unconscious and, at her behest, had sex with Dahlia. (One of Dahlia's neuroses was nymphomania, which was bound to a strong sense of diablophilia.) This resulted in a very important pregnancy, one which would drive Tamaron into obsession, as well as yet another death. Tamaron was furious by his failure to summon Akinos; he would have to try again, with something new. He did indeed contemplate using what he had gathered on Gekkos for the job, but a new event occurred that prevented him from making this decision: the presence of Akinos on Earth had unleashed a plague of zombies along the East Coast. People were suddenly imperiled, and what was more, a White House staffer had seen Brant work the ritual. Putting two and two together, this staffer sent proof to the media, exposing Brant as a sorcerer and the cause of the zombie plague. Despite numerous emergency press statements made to allay fears, Brant was automatically maligned and the entire country rose into a panic. Fearing the loss of his office, Brant quickly tried something else. Projecting himself into space, in the attempt to draw in an alien menace that would distract from the horror, he found that a particular area of Earth's moon phased in and out of sync with the Hell dimension. Several dog-like beings, called by Tamaron the “Hounds of the Moon”, lived in this phase area, and could be transported magically to Earth. Tamaron dispatched the Hound armies to Earth and then blamed them for the zombie plagues, claiming that they were the evil necromancers the American people feared. This was believed, and many conflicts broke out in an attempt to destroy the Hounds and the zombies alike. Tamaron then positioned the CIA to prepare a coverup at the end of the war, in the event of needing to maintain the social stability of Earth-20181; he also had the staffer responsible for the leak assassinated. The war against the Hounds began to consume much of the President's time, and as such he became infuriated. His mission was to return home, and now such a goal seemed very far away. The Method Pouring over as many magical textbooks as he could get his hands on, Tamaron at last found a relatively obscure way to travel between dimensions; it had been logged in a book written by Harold Coppola, given as a gift to Cyrus Sincodemius years ago. The method involved forming what was called a “triple vestibule”, by traveling through three different universes at once. This travel could only be accomplished using one's astral self, and to that effect, soul shards would have to be created. Tamaron had accidentally learned of the soul shards when he had attempted to possess the Thing in the Pit, and so he planned to create three of them and send them out into three universes, including Universe-20181. His astral self, or selves, were not bound by the laws that trapped his body, and while he believed he could send out fragments of his astral self, he knew the Multiversal barriers kept him from simply possessing another host in another universe. The method of soul-division involved the Dagger of Serpentis, which Tamaron had stolen years before in a ritual to Ythogtha. Recapturing the Dagger from the Smithsonian, Tamaron stabbed himself three times, but did not die by his own will. This was sufficient to “snap off” three pieces of his astral spirit, and he dispatched them to go find hosts. The hosts for the pieces would not become parts of Tamaron's will in themselves, but they would serve as the engines of an interdimensional gateway that he could use to return to Earth-Alpha. The pieces ended up binding to a particular reincarnation cycle, as was their fashion; and as it turned out, this was the cycle of Boston Group member Josh Inn, who had perished in a duel with Graham in 1922. The cycle was capable of crossing Earths, undulating through dimensions rather like a serpent, and the shards were distributed among 13th Century drunkard and braggart Jeremiah Inclosure of Earth-13151518, 18th Century French adventurer Jean Incroyable of Earth-Alpha, and Senator Jacob Isley, of Earth-20181, who was actually active during Tamaron's current Presidency. Slowly, this trio would have their life-force drained into the shards, which would allow a gateway to form on Earth-20181 that would allow access to either Earth-13151518 or Earth-Alpha. Upon their deaths, the gateway would activate and Tamaron could escape. However, Tamaron did not know how long it would take for the subjects to die. The magics used by the Hounds on Earth-20181 distorted the time relation between Earth-Alpha and Earth-13151518, meaning that the historically dead figures were still “counted” as alive, from the relative standpoint of the magic itself. Inclosure had suffered an unknown fate on his Earth, while Incroyable had been stabbed to death by mysterious masked assailants on his. The respective deaths of the men, Tamaron feared, could take decades to manifest. Yet he did not realize that he had hidden assistance. Conspiracy theorists and crackpots (who included Jon and Dahlia) still believed the President was some form of necromancer, and thus wanted to destroy him. Jon and Dahlia, perhaps due to their contact with Akinos, had suddenly acquired a companion, a minor sorcerer named Judson. Judson, a carnival worker at the same carnival that had once employed Thomas J. Carlson, had a unicycle that could travel between dimensions and through time. He, like Jon and Dahlia—and, indeed, all madmen and madwomen throughout existence—could see the structure of the Multiverse itself, due to his insanity. Eventually, Dahlia and Jon were contacted by Thomas J. Carlson and Welshie. The two former members of the Boston Group had learned of Tamaron's creation of the soul shards, and believed the shards were the key to the evil President's own life force. Dahlia swore to save the U.S. by destroying them, and thus she, Jon, and Judson began to track them along the reincarnation cycle. Welshie and Carlson, knowing that the President would kill them if he learned of their presence, stayed behind. The others first went to Earth-13151518, where they attacked Jeremiah Inclosure. Confronting him outside of a tavern, they dismembered him with an axe and a sword before suspending his corpse inside of a bell tower. Afterward, they went to Earth-Alpha, where they met Jean Incroyable. They were saddened by having to kill him, but donned the masks of his historical murderers and stabbed him twenty-three times, like Caesar. Next, they followed the cycle to Earth-20181, but ended up in 1922, where Josh Inn was battling Graham in a cemetery. Here, they became the mysterious figures that distracted Inn at the critical point of his attack, causing him to decapitate himself with a chainsaw. They were saddened by causing his death as well, but found he did not contain the shard they sought. Tamaron sensed the destruction of his shards, and as was the case with the piece destroyed by the death of the Thing in the Pit, he fell into a spell of deep agony. However, he tempered this with the joy of knowing that soon the gateway would opened—his mysterious helpers would soon kill Senator Isley, and the gateway to Earth-Alpha would open, freeing him at last. He decided to learn the identities of the people assisting him, and in doing so saw that Dahlia was pregnant. He realized something was amiss about the pregnancy, and so he examined it via scrying—only to find she was carrying the Devil Carny. Flying into a panic, having heard about this creature from the books of Sincodemius, Tamaron knew at once that if he seized ''this ''host, he would be invincible. He had failed several times before attempting to steal the energies of magical creatures, but this was different—the Carny was only a fetus, and was, unlike the Thing in the Pit, mostly human. He could hardly resist this opportunity, and awaited a battle between the two escaped lunatics and himself. The Devil Carny Cometh Eventually, the pair did indeed kill Senator Isley; they did it, in fact, in a session of Congress, but with the telepathic influence of Tamaron, no one noticed or cared until they escaped. From there, they needed to infiltrate the White House, but Tamaron ordered them to be allowed to reach him in the tunnels below. The Leper refused to obey these commands, and confronted the pair; however, they easily struck him down. When they arrived, he admitted everything, including that he had used magic to gain the Presidency, and that he had once lived as his scandalous, infamous grandfather, Charles Titan. The two attempted to attack him but he defeated and knocked out Jon rather easily. He then lunged out of his body to try to take over the Devil Carny. As ever, his attempts to steal the power of a god-like being failed, and proved to be his undoing. The Devil Carny was not a mere fetus, and was actually an extension of Akinos himself. Having not really liked Tamaron from the beginning, Akinos as the Carny blasted him backwards, trapping him in his body, which was then thrown around like a ragdoll. Suffering severe internal injuries, Brant began to die. However, as he did so, he cursed the Carny and his parents, and then escaped his physical form once more when it passed away. For better or worse, Brocelyn Brant was dead. With his death the telepathic spells holding the staff of the White House fell apart, and his body was discovered. Jon and Dahlia went on the run for several months, until the Devil Carny was at last born. It was given to Judson for safekeeping, shortly before Secret Service operatives gunned them down in retaliation for their assassination of the President. Tamaron, meanwhile, found that no one in Washington, D.C. could support him as a host, and he too went on the run. As was his fate, he was drawn back to Boston, where the zombies he had unleashed as President were still running loose. Here he took on the form of a teenage boy. Personality and Traits As Brant, Tamaron demonstrated more of the patience he had learned since he had arrived on Earth-20181, but this slowly subsided as he was again caught up in the thrill of power. Having been relatively humble in his forms as Titan and Gerber, Brant as a host was a sharp change for Tamaron, having once had great fame as an actor that later became much stronger when he became the President of the United States. Here, Tamaron showed great political mastery, though he did fill in gaps in his failings via hypnosis and telepathy. The usage of these powers on such a large scale proved to be a tremendous feat in itself, and it is shown that Tamaron had no great difficulty in using them on such radii. Indeed, even in the face of starting a magic-based land war within the U.S. itself, Tamaron was still a decently supported President during his short term. He had true supporters beyond his use of power, as demonstrated by the zeal of his Secret Service agents in striking down his killers. Tamaron as Brant demonstrated two other attributes of heavy highlight: his power as a summoner, and his intense desire to return home. Regarding the former, he was able to call upon the Hounds of the Moon, an army of zombies, and Akinos with very little difficulty. He was also able to, with moderate strain, call upon the forces of division that created his three soul shards (as well as resist the pain of having them destroyed, a force that he was almost happy to brave if it meant going back to his homeworld). Regarding the latter, he was willing to destroy the entire United States (and possibly the world) if it meant acquiring the power to go back to Earth-Alpha. His belief that “higher level” Earths, such as Earth-Alpha, were more pure than others, which was a false belief that he inherited from Cyrus Sincodemius. Desiring the supposedly more “pure” magics for his ultimate plan of dominion over the Multiverse, Tamaron saw “escape” from Earth-20181 as the key stepping stone in the continuation of his very long life. Trivia * The name “Brocelyn Hogarth Brant” does not seem to be particular reference. “Brocelyn” is a particularly obscure name with an unknown meaning, as is “Hogarth”. “Brant” is a name referring either to a type of goose, or to something that is “high” or “steep”. This could be a reference to the height of political power Tamaron gained as Brant. The name “Hogarth” could also be a political reference, perhaps referring to Ontario politician Donald Hogarth (1879-1950), or political cartoonist and painter William Hogarth (1697-1764). * Brant was originally meant to be the villain of another book by Frank Jenkins, called [[''The Book of Devil Carny]]. Jon and Dahlia were to be the protagonists. However, when he began writing [[The Life of Mocata]] instead, Jenkins recycled the plot of Devil Carny ''as part of the Reunion Project. * Brant may be partially based off of Lord Voldemort, the villain of the Harry Potter series. Though Brant's soul shards are similar to Voldemort's Horcruxes, they do not sustain Brant's life, and instead power the interuniversal gateway that Tamaron seeks to open. Nevertheless, the plot of ''The Book of Devil Carny ''would have been similar to ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, with the protagonists attempting to destroy parts of the wizard villain's soul before a final confrontation with him. * Brant, as an actor turned politician, is partially based on President Ronald Reagan, who had been a film actor for some time before he joined up with the Republican Party. Though not an occultist, Reagan did have a fascination with horoscopes, to the point where they governed important functions of his Presidency. * Brant may also be partially based on George W. Bush, due to certain rumors pertaining to the Bush family and occultist Aleister Crowley, who served as the basis for Cyrus Sincodemius. There have been allegations that Crowley was the father of George Bush's mother Barbara, which would tie in with Charles Titan's status as the grandfather of Brocelyn Brant. Sources and Appearances * ''The Life of Mocata, Volume III ''(mentioned in subsequent volumes)